


Unconventional Pastime

by KuraNova



Series: Smile Universe [4]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Background Promptis - Freeform, Crack, Crazy!Ardyn, Games, M/M, Notallthatbad!Ardyn, Prompto is confused, Spoilers, and so am i
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-16 03:53:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10563150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuraNova/pseuds/KuraNova
Summary: Prompto wakes up on an Imperial airship bound for Gralea. A captive, and dealing with revelations about his origins, he does not expect the Imperial Chancellor to arrive bearing analmostwelcome distraction.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sorry about this at all. You can thank RedHawkeRevolver for the idea. ;)
> 
> Important Things:  
> There is no beta for this fic. Also, challenges with self-worth and mentions of anxiety lie within. Read with discretion.

Prompto groaned, slapping his palm to his forehead with a hiss between his teeth and the halting awareness that came with waking in a place you never remembered falling asleep. Instead of snow and ice beneath his back, he felt only the rough texture of cheap bedsheets. We wondered, only for a second, if the entire train incident had been some kind of fucked up dream and that he was back in a caravan with Noctis, Ignis, and Gladio sleeping off another hunt as they tried to make their way to Altissia. As he glanced around, though, he realized that was a pipe dream if he’d ever had one. 

The walls surrounding him were made of steel and welded together with a grating that put blinking lights and whirring gears just out of curious reach. The floor beneath was the same, and Prompto wondered at that architecture of it for a minute before feeling the entire space tilt suddenly, though slightly, to one side. 

An airship. He was on an airship.

This meant he’d been picked up by the Empire and now, he could only assume, was on his way to Gralea where they would do who-knows-what to him. He wasn’t … he wasn’t a real person, after all. He was their property, just like all of those-. Prompto shook his head violently, half expecting to hear a loose bolt rattling around in his head, but the gesture was silent. He had to stop thinking that way. Slowly, he leaned over to put his forehead on his knees and breathed deeply to quell his rising panic.

_ Focus on just where you are right now _ , he could hear Ignis saying.  _ Close your eyes and allow yourself to think only about your right elbow.  _ A pause.  _ Good. Now the tip of your nose. And don’t forget to keep breathing, Prompto _ .

A few minutes later he was much calmer. Without Noctis to focus on, he’d had to focus on himself a lot these last few days. It was strange, but he was thankful for Ignis teaching him to manage the worst of his anxiousness without having to - well, lose his appetite. 

Rising to his feet, Prompto navigated the tilted room to the little portal window and looked outside. All he could make out was the blue expanse of empty sky with a floor of clouds drifting by below. The scene would have almost been peaceful had the door to the room not suddenly slid open with a loud beep and a slam loud enough to made the metal floor shudder.

“Where  _ is _ our little chocobo lover?”

The familiar voice gave Prompto goosebumps, and he immediately felt his heart begin to pound in his chest. Just his luck that  _ he _ would be here. He’d spent the better part of a week trying to evade him in the snow drifts just outside the imperial city. Prompto supposed it would have been too much to ask to never see the Chancellor again - or whatever he was. He got a distinctly otherworldly vibe from the guy, and it wasn’t just his fashion sense.

“Ah! There you are. I was beginning to think you’d somehow slipped the noose.”

Ardyn’s rumbling laugh felt like it practically vibrated in the air around him as her came into view. Dressed as ridiculously as always - Prompto always thought the weird coffee filter accessories at his neck and on his shoes were the icing on that trashy cake - the Chancellor walked slowly into the room, keen eyes never leaving Prompto. He held something, a box, beneath his arm, but Prompto was too worried about the proverbial lion stalking him than whatever Ardyn had deigned to bring with him.

“What? No words for your savior? You would have frozen to death out there, you know.” Setting the box down on the low table bolted to the floor in the middle of the room, Ardyn freed a hand to inspect his nails before making a flicking gesture with his hand, as if he were brushing away the inconvenience of Prompto’s silence. “That  _ can _ happen to people like you. You aren’t impervious to the elements.”

Prompto swallowed thickly, trying to gather the threads of his courage. “What do you want?”

“I’m assuming you mean generally,” Ardyn mused, finally freeing Prompto from his penetrating gaze to look down at the box he’d brought. “While I cannot speak for the Empire, I,  _ personally _ , was wondering if you might be able to help me with something.”

What the hell was this guy on about? Help him? As if. 

Ardyn’s gaze swept back up to Prompto’s face, and the knowing smirk he leveled in his direction sent a shudder up Prompto’s spine. “No need to look so sour. I’m merely confused. You see, I have been told that these types of games,” he gestured to the box on the table, “are a rather diverting pastime. The trouble is, they are  _ so _ different from the games I played in my childhood, and I do not understand the point of them. Particularly  _ this _ one.”

Prompto followed the flourish of Ardyn’s hand and allowed himself to take his attention from the Chancellor to eye the box. He choked back a snort of surprise. “Jenga?” The Chancellor was … he was  _ asking _ Prompto to teach him how to play Jenga.

Yep. He was dead. Definitely dead. No one could possibly be as dead as he was right now, this very second. Hopefully, that meant Ardyn was dead too, because he didn’t even want to  _ think _ about why his afterlife incorporated airships, tiny rooms, and greasy, sexually ambiguous, melodramatic annoyances with great hair. He didn’t.

“Oh, so you  _ are _ familiar! I had thought so, but one can never be entirely certain. Come, sit. You will show me how to play.”

Prompto’s brows threaded together in a frown. Weird. Ardyn almost sounded like a different person just then. Imperious and demanding instead of...confusing and a lot of freaking crazy. Curious, and because he was positive he was dead, Prompto approached the table and took a seat. Ardyn mirrored his actions, then looked at the box, then to Prompto.

“So,” he asked, “how do we begin?”

“Well, uh …” Prompto slowly reached toward the box, eying Ardyn for any sudden moves as he drew it toward him. He opened it and dumped out the pieces, neglecting to take out the instructions because he  _ did _ know how to play. Adryn observed his every move, though instead of the usual creepy feeling he got whenever he had been the object of the Chancellor’s attention, this time it felt more … curious. “You have to make a tower first.”

“Like the one in the picture?” Ardyn asked.

Prompto nodded. “Y-yeah. That’s how we set it up to play.”

“Oh!” Ardyn clapped his hands together abruptly, startling Prompto. “Like setting up a Latrunculi board.”

“A what now?”

“Latrunculi. You have a set of discs containing two colors. The goal is to capture all of your opponent’s discs, or to steal the most valuable ones.”

“You mean checkers?” Prompto asked.

“I believe it’s more like- is chess the right word?”

“I guess so,” Prompto murmured. He reached down to begin stacking the wooden blocks, and Ardyn watched for a moment before pitching in to help.

_ Fucking weird as shit _ didn’t even begin to cover … whatever this was.

“So, ah, once the tower is finished, players have to take turns removing blocks from the tower. If you make the tower fall, you lose. You also can’t take blocks off of the very top layer.”

Ardyn frowned. “What is the purpose of that?”

“To have fun? I guess?”

“I will go first,” Ardyn rumbled, and reached forward to pluck a block daintily from the middle of the stack. Finished, he shoved the lone block off to the side.

“You have to stack that one,” Prompto corrected him, at this point deciding that he had nothing to fear if he was dead in a snow drift somewhere in Gralea.

“Pardon?”

“You make the tower taller, and more difficult for opponents, when you stack the block you take onto the very top. You’ll see.”

Looking as if he didn’t  _ quite _ believe Prompto, Ardyn placed his block on top of the tower. Prompto then took his turn.They kept on like that for a long time before Ardyn pulled the wrong block and the tower fell over with a jarring crash.

“Oh,” the Chancellor mused, covering his mouth in mock horror, “ _ just _ like Insomnia!”

Prompto bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from saying something horrible, not that he should have cared. It wasn’t like Ardyn was real or anything. Seeing that he didn’t get a rise from Prompto, Ardyn hummed happily and began to stack the blocks back up into a perfect tower.

“Let’s try again.”

Over and over again Ardyn roped Prompto into more rounds when, eventually, he had figured out enough about the physics of the game to win. Prompto would never tell him he’d lost on purpose because his  _ eyes _ were burning, and the sky outside the window was  _ dark, _ and all he wanted to do was sleep. Ardyn was reduced to pouting when Prompto told him he was done for the day. 

“And here I thought all the  _ young _ people these days were such night owls. You’re such a disappointment, Prompto.”

“I taught you how to play one of the simplest games ever made,” Prompto snapped, crossing his arms over his chest and fighting back a yawn.

“And for that, you have my  _ eternal _ thanks.” Ardyn dropped the last wooden piece into the box and dropped into half of a mocking bow. “Sleep well! We’ll be in the capital soon.”

Prompto mumbled something incoherent in reply before slipping into the bed he’d woken up on and giving up his aching body to sleep.

-

 

The next time he woke it was to the sensation of cold, biting metal against his wrists and ankles.

“What the-?” He squeaked, immediately struggling against the bonds.

“Awake at  _ last! _ ” 

Prompto’s panicked gaze landed on Ardyn who stood in all of his coffee filtered glory just in front of him. Wearing a sardonic smile, he took of his hat and held it to his chest - like a bullshit apology.

“I do hope you’re not too uncomfortable there. You see, you’ll have to sit tight for a few hours until your prince charming arrives.”

“Noct is-?”

“Correct! He’s well on his way, but he is alone, searching for you. He’s rather worried about you, you see. It’s so  _ touching _ . Why, last I checked on him, he was  _ crying _ and thinking he’d never see you again. Such a bond you two share. It seems  _ so special _ .” The corner of Ardyn’s mouth kicked up into a grin. “Never fear, though. I wouldn’t  _ dream _ of harming either of you. You’re both  _ far _ too important to me.”

Prompto shrunk away against the cold metal at his back. This definitely felt real.

“In fact, you should be  _ thanking _ me, dearest Prompto. I saved you from the scientists here. You see, they seemed bent on  _ dismantling _ you. Piece. By. Piece. But- Oh!” Ardyn paused to place his hand against his ear. “Do you hear it? I think that’s our little prince  _ now _ .”

Ardyn chuckled and twirled around to leave the room before throwing an insincere “tata!” over his shoulder and leaving Prompto to the grating darkness of Zegnautus Keep.

 


End file.
